First Sunday after Christmas (Year 2, NL)

Advent calls us to take the myths of Christianity seriously.

The psalter’s wisdom, illuminated from five perspectives

The wilderness is hard enough. Kindness helps.

When we give something up, we realize that its goodness doesn't depend on our ownership of it.

This week’s readings challenge us to adopt a particular posture.

What good is a wilderness experience?

“No evil shall befall us,” said St. Anthony in the desert, preachers during the Rwandan genocide, and Americans after 9/11.

Jesus wasn't popular.

Who tests Abraham, or Jacob, or Jesus—and why?

It's Advent, and accusations against prominent men are shaking things up like a highway construction project in the wilderness.

Each January the lectionary invites us to remember the invisible network of faith.

In Flint, we know something about nostalgia and despair—and hope.

And what would happen if we didn't?

Lent began as a time of preparation for the covenant of baptism. The Year B Lenten readings very much ring out this theme of covenant, starting this Sunday with the covenant with Noah and its interpretation in 1 Peter as the covenant of baptism. The coming weeks feature the covenants with Abraham and with Moses and finally the covenant written upon our hearts in Jeremiah 31. Developing the theme of covenant might be an edifying way to let these Lenten scripture readings prepare congregations for Holy Week—especially the high drama of the Easter Vigil, centered on the waters of baptism.

I eschew the danger of the river, but I know that it is where God leads me.

In a culture that finds repentance unintelligible, impractical, or unnecessary, we are called to witness to its intelligibility, beauty, and importance.